Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Bride – 04

The title of the show comes to the fore! But first, the return of Gisen throws a wrench into the operations of the Maid Cafe, as she wants to join the group. But as always with Gisen, there’s an ulterior motive, and it’s again related to helping Amakusa Shiro when he is resurrected in 100 years. She raises the issue of the stronger Master Samurai who becomes the bride of their general. Of course, everyone wants to be Muneakira’s bride, and Gisen convinces all of them to try to obtain that which they would seem to be unable to get: Mental fortitude for Sen, going all the way for Kanetsugu, and a more womanly figure for Yukimura (as a thousand lolicons cried out in despair…). Of course, Gisen is after the other thing she always wanted, to convince Muneakira that he should be a bit more forceful with the other girls (and her).

We get a little more development in the Dark Samurai camp as well, as Kojirou’s jealousy of Musashi vising Juubei gets the best of her, and she tries to brainwash Juubei into jumping down the steps to her death, only to be saved by Gisen. We still don’t really have a good idea of why the Dark Samurai are around, or what they’re doing. The only one who doesn’t sit around the graveyard mooning about how they have nothing to do is Musashi, and she seems to tick everyone else off because of it. The rest of you girls can go do other stuff, you know!

So far, this really felt the most like an episode of the first season, especially with the return of Gisen who is up to her same old tricks. We did learn that Gisen’s eye has lost its power, just like Juubei has and I wonder if Gisen can even become a Master Samurai anymore. Either way, she’s been welcomed back into the fold and will now be another maid.

Gisen gets straight to the point

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Photo Kano – 04

We had another round robin episode, with participation by almost all the girls, including Kanon (escaping from a bee) and Momoko (still lost trying to find the incinerator). I think the thing I find pretty incongruous is that Kazuya is how he’s a stand-up guy with everyone, including shot-blocking the rest of the Shashin-bu with Haruka, keeping his promise of secrecy with Tomoe, groveling with Mai when she finds the ecchi mags that he has been trying to give back to Itta, and helping out Kanon and Nonoka when they get caught playing baseball with a broom in the halls, but then is really a blackmailing jerk when it comes to Aki. So far he’s coerced her into letting Kanon and Nonoka off, posing for gravure shots, and now doing his homework? This is getting quite out of hand and I’m really hoping he won’t go to that well any more, but you know he will. And one of these times it’s gonna backfire. I don’t think this is the kind of show that will take down both Aki and Kazuya but there’s going to be a reckoning coming up, I’d almost guarantee. I mean, it almost seems like he’s headed for a Bad End with her, and they tend to be worse than just no end. I mean, threatening to cover the school with prints of that one picture? That’s really beyond the pale.

And that’s a shame, because the more I see of Aki, the more I like her character. She’s actually got a purpose behind her contrariness, unlike the usual random tsundere character. And she really doesn’t take the Student Council President thing too far, at least as we’ve seen. It is dangerous to be swinging a broom in the hall or running up the steps on the wrong side, and with the drink she just asked him to move into a different appropriate place. Of course, still taking the lead is Haruka, who Kazuya is completely looking out for, and even asks to walk home with, to Haruka’s delight (and Uchida’s dislike). They have a nice conversation about Kazuya’s habit of dropping hobbies, and why it feels like photography is different for him. And also about how nice it is that Haruka can spend more time with him. So far Haruka’s definitely the main girl of the series, but we’re also only 4 episodes in, and there’s plenty of time to change course in a 12 episode series. I’ve seen harem shows before that by ep 5 I wonder why they’re bothering with anyone else, yet at the end, the MC ends up with someone completely different. So we’ll see.

The standings so far

Not much change in order from last week, with Haruka pulling out more of a lead, Aki into a strong second place, and Mai really making a move into third. Tomoe might be in fourth just because there’s an active promise between her and Kazuya, and Nonoka slightly behind. Hikari and Rina are really bringing up the rear, with Hikari’s only screen time a random shot of her taking a photo, and Rina’s just plain old fanservice bait.

And speaking of fanservice bait, here’s a couple stitched together pics.

Nonoka doesn’t bend that way, Mai.

Are we sure Tomoe doesn’t have a crush on Haruka?

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The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat – 03

How I like to think Tsukiko’s unseen visit to Azusa this episode turned out.

Those masks just make Tsukiko that much cuter. Ironically now they’re more expressive than her own face.

Well, things have turned serious in a hurry. I’m surprised by how quickly Youto managed to get his facade back. This is the kind of stuff you don’t expect to see by just the 3rd episode. The good part is that this makes the story a hell of a lot more engaging than it could have been. The bad part is that there hasn’t been enough time to build up the depth of characters for the drama. Azusa’s issues are believable enough, but I still feel like I don’t know her well enough to really enjoy her breakthrough. Likewise for Youto, who’s been a bit too much of a level headed rational nice guy these past couple episodes.

Maybe Tsukiko’s story will end up better told. The flashbacks to her previous semi-anonymous encounters with Youto help to explain a lot of her behavior to this point, regarding both her own problem with expressing herself and her relationship with Youto. Those playground meetings were silly in that only-seen-in-a-light-novel kind of way, but I can roll with it. There’s still her relationship with her sister that has yet to be illuminated, which I hope is tied to her social issues. The story is definitely a level above what I was expecting, but still clumsy enough that I see plenty of room for improvement. With Youto’s facade back, I guess we don’t have any more of his “super Tourette’s” outbursts to look forward to, but maybe, just maybe, the show can actually deliver on the story instead of the slapstick.

Unfortunately, only fanservice this episode was for the foot fetishists. Which, to be fair, make up like 95% of the target audience for this show.

I’m rather anxious to see how this thickens and develops. Rather than the Bride angle being a remix of last series’ All Girls must Become Master Samurai, I hope it unlocks the door to Jyuubei and Gisen “coming back wrong” mystery.

Yeah, I agree that the General’s Bride aspect is a good turn for the show. I think it will rekindle a little of the antagonism between Sen and Yukimura, and like you say, illuminate the path to finding Yagyuu Juubei and Gisen’s power.

Sen and Yukimura (and by extension Hanzou and Metabei) are so much better when trading jabs and insults. The comebacks from Yukimura are right in Rie-sama’s vocal wheelhouse, who is, of course, best girl.

HNNNNNG DAT NEKO MASK: Yeah, odd to see what was looking like an overarching element for the entire series get resolved so quickly. I think this show has it in the bag thou, as you pointed out, Tsukiko’s relationship with her older sister looks rather tough.
But just because Youto got his facade back doesn’t mean the end of the drama. Now both he and Tsukiko are second guessing everything they hear from the other. She has her own facade as well, and I think she might end up in delicious tears.

Asuza’s bare feet! I saw it as being vulnerable as well as having the excuse for Youto to carry her on his back. Odd precedence to set up what would become a situation of unrequited love/crush.

Samurai Bride: An official welcome to the harem, Gisen. Maybe if she puts here boobs in male customer’s faces, they’ll put more money down. 😛

I love Sen and love the surprisingly frequent service that the show has been making her give. Anyways, as you kinda mention HWY, it feels like we’re getting into the main business now that Gisen has come back.

She plays nearly the same character in every show, that’s her only flaw. She’s always Sawashiro Miyuki. When the character on screen matches up with her, it’s great, but if I’m being honest, there’s not a lot of range there.

I actually really like Mizuhara Kaoru’s seemingly cultured voice for the role, it makes the over the top predatory nature of Gisen that much better.

Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Bride – 04: Gisen re-enforces the fact this show belongs in MetaFap. Definitely NSFW. In one episode, she’s managed to flaunt more fanservice than the rest of the girls. Other than Sasuke, she’ll be the most attractive maid especially since she embraces her sexuality more than the others.

Yukimura must be punished. Violating the natural order of being a loli by trying to gain a bigger chest should be considered a serious crime against fanservice. Stick to what you know you can do. 🙂

Yeah, Samurai Brides was pretty close to outright hentai this week (I felt I was kind of pushing it with that screenshot of Hanzou…). But that’s the way the first season was, too, and that’s one of the things that really made this episode feel like it was bringing the series back to that course.

Photo Kano – 04: Is it just me or did Mai look turned on when she saw those magazines? She could be a closet pervert.

Kazuya is slowly but surely letting himself get corrupted blackmailing Muroto. Other than Mai, one of these days, he’s going to reap what he sowed. So many erotic shots in one place. He’s struck photography gold!

So. Photo Kano. I sat down to watch the first episode around when it aired. Five minutes in, my Dad called wanting to know how to get a bad smell out of his fridge. What should have been a brief phone call turned into a typical 45 minute long tangent gliding session. Me dad and I can talk. After I hang up, I unpause my video player and continue watching. Five minutes later, my Dad phones me again asking how to get a bad smell out of his fridge….

And that’s it for my night, as I have to rise early the next day. I sit down to watch it again later than evening and I get a bunch of email/messages pertaining to my night job not a few minutes into queuing my video player.

TL:DR. I watched it shortly before the second episode came out, and it felt kinda blah. Am I missing something? I think everyone knows my tastes by now…so what do you say?

Photo Kano is really a different type of show. It’s the same type of non-harem harem show that Amagami would have been without the omnibus format. Maybe a good comparison is KoiChoco, as far as the relationships go. It seems like there are a couple girls who are really interested in Kazuya (Haruka, Nonoka, Mai), a girl who could do the flip from mild antagonist to girlfriend (Aki), and a couple of girls that just haven’t been really brought into the story yet (Tomoe, Hikari, Rina). It is *not* a typical harem show, the girls only interact with each other as just normal classmates. There’s no competition for Kazuya (yet), so there’s none of that kind of stuff. That’s how it’s similar to KoiChoco, in that there will probably be a choice that has to be made, but it will be on Kazuya, not either girl ‘winning’.

It’s not a madcap show, by any means, but it’s got a lot of *possible* romance that I find delicious.

The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat – 03: I like how considerate Youto strives to be in order to cheer Azuki up though his perversion becomes a huge obstacle when trying to deal with serious matters. What a hopeless pervert.